


Reassurance Smells of Bananas.

by BarPurple



Series: Cross Realm Library Exchange [2]
Category: Discworld - Terry Pratchett, Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Angst, Crossover, Fandom, Fluff, Gen, Just a wee bit, story telling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-30
Updated: 2016-07-30
Packaged: 2018-07-27 17:09:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7626919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BarPurple/pseuds/BarPurple
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Unseen University's Librarian has been spending some time getting to know the inhabitants of a little town in Maine.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reassurance Smells of Bananas.

Doctor Hooper smiled at the long limbed figure currently swinging on the lamppost at the corner of Main Street. In any other town the sight would have caused panicked phone calls to animal control and the Sheriff, but this was Storybrooke, unusual sights were an hourly occurrence and this one had become familiar over the last few months. Archie raised a hand in greeting and called out; “Good morning Librarian!”

The orangutan dropped from the lamp post and rolled neatly toward Pongo who was barking happily. The Librarian unfurled himself and scratched behind Pongo’s ears with his long leathery fingers.

“Ook ook?”

“Very well thank you and yourself?”

Archie wasn’t sure why he could so easily understand the Librarian, Regina had suggested it was something to do with his time as a cricket, but the Librarian had curled his lip at that and made a very expressive gesture behind her back that had caused Archie to splutter as he tried not to laugh. The former Evil Queen might not inspire fear in the Librarian, but Archie didn’t like to annoy Regina at all if he could help it.

“Ook, ook ook ook?”

“Ah yes, Henry and the other kids are looking forward to that. I’ll see you in the playground at one?”

The Librarian had not been surprised to find that the Discworld and its inhabitants featured in storybooks in this realm. In fact when Henry had shown him the books in the town library he’d looked sadly at the spines and ooked very softly as he traced his finger over the author’s name. Henry had dragged Archie into the library to translate and had been over the moon to discover that not only did the simian wizard know about the novels, he had met the author. The Librarian had agreed to meet with Henry’s friends, who were huge Discworld fans, and talk to them about Terry Pratchett, which was the plan for this afternoon.

Archie watched the Librarian for a moment as he petted Pongo. There was something in the slump of the orangutan’s shoulders that looked so very sad.

“The kids will understand if this is too difficult for you. I know it must have been hard to lose your friend.”

The Librarian looked up at him, a strange glint in his deep soulful eyes.

“Ook.”

With that the Librarian knuckled away down the street. Archie stood for a moment wondering what the ape could mean by ‘Not lost, just begun again.”

 

The gathering at the playground had the feel of a town picnic, in fact many people had turned up with baskets stuffed with goodies, including lots bananas and peanuts. The Librarian greeted Belle with a gentle hug and guided her to a bench, waiting to be invited to put his hands on her growing baby bump, then ooking with excitement when he felt the baby kick. Rumple tolerated this display of friendly affection from the ape better than he did when most townsfolk showed an interest in Belle’s pregnancy, but then again most folk in town couldn’t pound the Dark One into the ground with barely a grunt, so his acceptance was probably more self-preservation than anything else. Rumple did chuckle when the Librarian greeted Killian with a bone jarring slap on the back. 

Henry and his friends laid out picnic blankets in front of the castle climbing frame and chatted among themselves with excited impatience, each clutching their favourite Discworld book, as the Librarian greeted the friends he’d made in town. They fell silent when he finally knuckled over to the blankets and sat down in a heap next to Archie. Henry licked his lip and asked hesitantly; “How did you meet Mr Pratchett?”

The Librarian’s rubbery lips peeled back into a toothy grin, Archie listened to his description for a moment then began to translate for those who still had difficulty with Orangutan.

“Terry came to the Disc through L-space. He’d been in a little bookshop in London and took a wrong turn down one of the aisles. He was rather surprised to find himself in the Unseen University, but he took it better than most people do.”

That sparked a million rapid questions from the kids and a few from their parents. Archie did his best to keep order and make sure everyone got their turn. The afternoon turned rowdy when Roland asked about Errol the dragon. Lily surprised and delighted the kids by transforming into her dragon form and helping the Librarian act out the parts from the story the kids knew as ‘Guards! Guards!’ After dramatically swooping overhead Lily turned back and took a bow with the Librarian who tugged Archie’s sleeve and ooked urgently. Archie nodded and said; “The Librarian wants everyone to know that Lily is much nicer than the dragons on the Disc.”

Lily blushed happily and hugged the ape before returning to her seat next to Emma who nudged her with her elbow.

“Look at you go. You’ve really mastered the flying now.”

“Mom’s been teaching me. She’s spending time with Dad today, or she’d be here. Does it get easier, suddenly having parents at our age?”

Emma looked across the park to where Snow and Charming were snuggled on a blanket feeding each other bits of fruit. She looked back at Lily and shook her head with a smile; “Nope, still weird.”

 

Over by the castle climbing frame Hansel was in a heated debate with his sister.

“You can’t ask him to sign it! He’s a librarian, he’s not going to want to write in a book!”

Hansel’s eyes went wide as a long orange furred arm reached over Gretel’s shoulder and plucked the pen from her fingers. Gretel whipped around to find the Librarian hanging upside down thoughtfully tasting the biro she’d been holding. He snapped the cheap plastic in two and smeared his thumb with the blue ink. Very gently he took Gretel’s copy of ‘Monstrous Regiment’ from her unresisting hands and flipped the cover open. His pink tongue peeked from between his lips as he pressed his inky thumb to the page. Happy with the result he blew on it to dry the ink and handed the book back to Gretel.

“Th…thank you, Librarian.”

Emboldened by Gretel’s success the kids lined up to have the Librarian put his mark on their favourite books. He got very excited the Violet’s favourite was ‘Last Continent’ and ooked a lot about how much fun that adventure had been. His expressive face crinkled into a frown when a copy of ‘The Colour of Magic’ was pressed into his hand. Killian scratched at his ear with his hook and laughed.

“Come on, mate. Y’know I liked Twoflower.”

“EEK eek ook!”

Killian rolled his eyes and bent down to whisper in the Librarian’s ear; “There are young ‘uns present mate, best not repeat the tale of me and that damn walking box, savvy?”

The Librarian gave him a wide, not so innocent grin that told Killian Emma would be hearing that embarrassing little story before to long. He gave into the inevitable and said; “Buy you an ale at Granny’s tonight and you can reveal all?”

The ape gave him a yellow toothed grin and shook on it.

The Librarian swung up to the top of the castle and plonked down next to Henry. They sat in companionable silence for a while watching the festivities below. The lad had something on his mind as he took the Quill from his inside pocket. The hair stood up on the Librarian’s arms, which is very obvious on an orangutan. He ooked an apology at Henry and smoothed his fur down. Henry held up the Quill.

“You know this is magic don’t you?” 

“Ook.”

“Was Mr Pratchett an author, like I am I mean?”  
The Librarian nodded.  
“Is that the way of Authors then? We either go mad with power, or lose our minds?”

The Librarian ooked softly for a moment. Henry nodded.

“I understood that. Grandma wouldn’t like you using that sort of language, but you’re right. Life is just unfair sometimes.”

Henry rocked as the Librarian swayed into his shoulder and pointed at his family below.

“Yeah, live for the moments, right? Race you down?”

The Librarian hit the ground first, but only because he was able to drop almost from the top of the climbing frame and roll so well.

 

A few days later the Librarian left town again. Time flowed differently on the Disc but the ape didn’t like leaving his Library for too long, Belle explained that he was worried what the students might get up to in his absence. He left Henry a package that smelled faintly of banana. Henry opened it and read the note. Belle looked over at him and asked; “What did he give you Henry?”

Henry smiled and tucked the book and note into his backpack before Belle could see them.

“Reassurance.”

Later at home Henry unpacked the Librarian’s gift; a copy of ‘The Dark Tower Volume One: The Gunslinger’ and a piece of parchment that read “You are not alone.”  
Henry grinned to himself. He had a trip to plan.


End file.
